When you have the winning hand what is it that you want to do most? You guessed right, make the most money with it. This is called value betting. You are betting with the intention that your hand is best and you want to win more money. A lot of players play very different than this. Even if they think that they have the best hand, they are risk averse and will not play the hand in the manor necessary to get the most money, but the cheapest way to get to show down. These players lose a lot of money because they aren’t getting all the value they could in those situations.
Why We Value Bet
Let’s say you raise AK and get called. The flop is A48 with a flush draw. Your opponent checks so you bet and they call. Unless your opponent starts showing aggression back at you, you should be betting most turns FOR VALUE and more than likely betting small on the river. If the board was A48 without a flush draw you could even bet the flop, check the turn, and then bet the river. You have to do this because when you play passively you are giving free cards to drawing hands that beat your hand if they hit. A flush draw and a straight draw will both only hit around a third of the time. That means that two thirds of the time you will be winning pots against them and one third of the time they will be winning pots against you. Whenever your opponent’s draws come in they are going to be betting to try to get as much as possible with their big hand. To counteract this you have to make up for those times by getting as much value the other two thirds of the time as possible.
When and How to Value Bet
When you value bet and how much you value bet are very dependant on the situation. When you notice someone is chasing a lot of draws, you need to make them pay to chase. You will have to fold and lose the pot that you built when the draw comes in but that will only happen one third of the time. If you notice that someone is willing to call down with a medium top pair hand like K9 on a 934 board you need to value bet them when you have an over pair. You have to get as much from your opponent as quickly as possible because there are so many cards that will kill your action. Broad way cards like aces kings and queens being on the board will make your opponent more inclined to fold his K9 there.
Another thing to do when value betting is to test just how big of bets your opponent will call. If they aren’t calling two thirds pot bets on the river then try half pot bets. If they call that then try a little more and so forth. This goes along with extracting as much money as possible in each situation. When you think you have the winning hand you want to get as much from your opponent as you can, so figuring out where their limit is will help you decide exactly how much you want to value bet against them for.
Since it’s hard enough to be a winning player because of rake, you have to make sure that you win enough to over come it. By value betting you are making sure to win as much money as possible, making your win rate as high as can be. Knowing why when and how to value bet will keep the money rolling in. By experimenting with value bet sizing you can figure out just how much your opponent is willing to reward you. Value betting is a very important weapon in any poker player’s arsenal. Ready? Aim! Fire!
